1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to video display apparatuses such as television receivers and video monitors, and in particular, to a video display apparatus in which, when a plurality of external input terminals are switched, a switching operation is simplified to enable rapid switching.
2. Description of the Related Art
A television receiver includes a plurality of external input terminals in order that various units, such as a video cassette recorder (VCR), a laser disc player (hereinafter referred to as an "LD"), and a satellite communications tuner (hereinafter referred to as a "BS tuner"), may be connected to the receiver.
As shown in FIG. 6, these external input terminals can be switched by pressing an input switching button 50 provided on a remote controller attached to the television receiver. Specifically, for example, as shown in FIG. 7, by repeatedly pressing the input switching button 50, a user can switch the present input to the desired input in sequential order of "TV", "VIDEO 1", "VIDEO 2", "VIDEO 3", "VIDEO 4", "VIDEO 5" and "TV", displayed on the screen of the television receiver.
This conventional input switching technique has the following problem: for example, in the case where only the external input terminal corresponding to "VIDEO 1" is connected to one external unit by the user, after the user has pressed the input switching button 50 so as to switch the present input to one external input, the user must see the screen on which indications ("VIDEO 2" through "VIDEO 5" in this case), corresponding to the other external input terminals without input signals, are displayed before an indication of "TV" is displayed. Also, if external inputs are separately provided such that a TV direct button 61, and the other direct buttons 62 to 66 are formed as shown in FIG. 8, pressing one direct button enables immediate switching to the desired external input. However, in order to use such a technique, additional buttons must be disadvantageously formed on a remote controller already having many buttons.